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Show 487 In the 1940 New River opinion, the Court said that:4S1 navigable waters are subject to national planning and control in the broad regulation of commerce granted the Federal Government. The following year in the Denison Dam case, the Court de- clared that it is for Congress alone to decide whether a particular project "by itself or as part of a more comprehensive scheme" will have such a beneficial effect on the arteries of interstate commerce as to warrant it.452 And there is no constitutional reason, the Court held, why Congress cannot treat the:458 watersheds as a key to flood control on navigable streams and their tributaries. Nor is there a constitutional ne- cessity for viewing each reservoir project in isolation from a comprehensive plan covering the entire basin of a particular river. Summary Comprehensive development, as applied to water resources and related land uses, may be defined as basin-wide develop- ment for optimum beneficial uses of a river system and its watershed. Growth Until World War I.-The natural unity between a river system and its watershed has been accorded varying and increasing recognition in legislation dating back to the latter part of the 19th century.. Statutes of this period recognized various combinations of such purposes as navigation, flood control, irrigation, power development, forest protection, debris control, and water supply. Legislative attention to conservation and development of water resources increased with the turn of the century. In the years immediately preceding World War I, several legisla- tive and executive commissions were appointed to study the question of river development for multiple purposes and to recommend legislation for such development. 451 United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co., 311 U. S. 377, 426-427 (1940), reh. den., 312 U. S. 712 (1941). 482 Oklahoma v. Atkinson, 313 U. S. 508, 527 (1941). 458 313 U. S. at 525. |